John C. Frémont

John Charles Frémont (January 21 1813 – July 13 1890), born John Charles Fremon, was an American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States, and the first Presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform of opposition to slavery.

Early life

Frémont was born in Savannah, Georgia, the illegitimate son of a prominent Virginia society woman and a penniless French refugee, a social handicap that he helped to overcome by marrying Jessie Benton, the favorite daughter of Thomas Hart Benton, who was a leading Democrat and a slaveowner.

Expeditions to the West

Frémont assisted and led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United States. In 1838 and 1839 he assisted Joseph Nicollet in exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and in 1841, with training from Nicollet, he mapped portions of the Des Moines River. From 1841 to 1846 he and his guide Kit Carson led exploration parties on the Oregon Trail and into the Sierra Nevada. During his expeditions in the Sierra Nevada, it is generally acknowledged that Frémont became the first Caucasian to view Lake Tahoe. He is also credited with determining that the Great Basin had no outlet to the sea. He also mapped volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens.Nevins, p. 194.

In 1846, Fremont ordered the murders of Jose R. Berreyesa and his nephews, Francisco and Ramon De Haro, near present-day San Rafael. ^* The murder of these popular Californianos hindered Fremont's political career and prevented him from being the first American governor of California, a post he coveted. Writing about the murders a half-century later, the historian Robert A. Thompsen noted, "Californians cannot speak of it down to this day without intense feeling" (History of California. vol. 5, p. 174-5.) In 1846 he was Lt Col of the U.S. Mounted Rifles {3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment}. In late 1846 Frémont, acting under orders from Commodore Robert F. Stockton, led a military expedition of 300 men to capture Santa Barbara, California, during the Mexican-American War. Expecting to be ambushed in Gaviota Pass by the entire Mexican army, he led his unit over the Santa Ynez Mountains at San Marcos Pass during the rainy night of December 27, 1846, and captured the Presidio, and the town, from behind. The rumor of the ambush turned out to be false: the army had been at Los Angeles with General Andrés Pico. General Pico, recognizing that the war was lost, later surrendered to him rather than incur casualties.

Politics

On January 16 1847, Commodore Stockton appointed Frémont military governor of California following the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the Mexican-American War in California. However, U.S. Army general Stephen Watts Kearny, who outranked Frémont and believed that he was the legitimate governor, arrested Frémont and brought him to Washington, DC, where he was convicted of mutiny. President James Polk quickly pardoned him in light of his service in the war.

He served (from 1850 to 1851) as one of the first pair of Senators from California. In 1856 the new Republican Party nominated him as their first presidential candidate, but he lost (see U.S. presidential election, 1856) to James Buchanan. Frémont lost California in the Electoral College.

Civil War

Frémont served as a major general in the American Civil War and declared martial law in Missouri. On August 30, 1861, he issued a proclamation: "The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen." (1) In the history of the United States, the foregoing statement is said to be the original Emancipation Proclamation. This declaration led to a conflict with Abraham Lincoln and led to Frémont's removal from command in the West on November 2, 1861. He was re-appointed to a different post (in West Virginia), but lost several battles and resigned his post.

Later life

He was briefly the candidate of the "Radical Republicans", a group of hard-line abolitionists upset with Lincoln's position toward slavery. The campaign was aborted in September 1864.

In 1866, Frémont reorganized the assets of the Pacific Railroad as the Southwest Pacific Railroad, which a year later was repossessed by the U.S. state of Missouri..

Frémont was appointed Governor of the Arizona Territory from 1878 to 1881. He died of peritonitis in a hotel in New York City and is buried in Rockland Cemetery, Piermont-on-Hudson, New York.

Legacy

Frémont collected a number of plants on his expeditions, including the first recorded discovery of the Single-leaf Pinyon by a Caucasian. The standard botanical author abbreviation Frém. is applied to plants he described.

Many places are named for him. Four U.S. states named counties in his honor: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, and Wyoming. Several cities are also named after him, such as Fremont, California, Fremont, Michigan, Fremont, Nebraska, and Fremont, New Hampshire. Fremont Peak in the Wind River Mountains is also named for the explorer, as is the John C. Fremont Branch Library, located on Melrose Avenue in, Los Angeles, California. See Fremont. As is Fremont Street in Las Vegas.

Several locations in Portland, Oregon are named after Frémont, including the Fremont Bridge and Fremont Street.

John C. Fremont Senior High School is named after him, as is Fremont Street in Kiel, Wisconsin.

In James Michener's book SPACE, the fictional state of Fremont is prominently mentioned.

References

Nevins, Allan. Fremont: Pathmarker of the West, Volume 1: Fremont the Explorer; Volume 2: Fremont in the Civil War (1939, rev ed. 1955)

Notes

External links

John C. Frémont | John Charles Fremont | John Charles Frémont | John Charles Frémont

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